Us, a mass-circulation celebrity periodical, was founded in 1977 by the New
York Times Company. The magazine was lightweight stuff for the New York
Times, but Arthur Ochs Sulzberger convinced the Times board that Us would
be a quick money-maker. Designed to compete with Time's very successful People,* it was first edited by William H. Davis. The first issue had a printing
of 750,000 copies. Unfortunately, the Times ran the operation on a shoestring
budget with little expenditure for advertising. Also, its fortnightly publication
could not keep pace with the weekly gossip. For its first several years the
periodical sputtered along at a loss with editors that "came and went almost as
often as Billy Martin."
1 Finally, in January of 1980Us made its first profit and
was sold soon thereafter to Peter J. Callahan, president of Macfadden Holdings,
publishers of True Confessions and Photoplay.
2

Under the guidance of Richard Kaplan as editor and Garey T. Symington as
publisher, Us circulation climbed to 1.1 million in 1983. Kaplan proclaimed
that Us intended to supplant People as "the most popular magazine of America's
Pop culture." Symington stated, "We are going to make a lot of money and
we're going to treat advertisers right." Advertisers' ads always faced editorial
matter, and there were no "bleed" premiums for four-color ads that ran into
the fold. Despite these developments, Us was still regarded as a "bargain-
basement version of People journalism."
3

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